Improvement in wash-boilers



UMEQSTATESPATENT@Frm- ALExAivfDEn n. DALL AND WILLIAM M rnELPs, oEMAnsHALL, MicHiGAN.

AlMliRovEME'NT IN WASH-Bomans.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 81,460, dated August 25, 1868.

i To all 'whom 'it 'may concern:

Be itknown that we, ALEXANDER R. BALL and WILLIAM M. PHELPs, both ofthe city of Marshall, in the county of Calhoun and State declare that the following is a full, clear, and

exact description'of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, forming a part of this specification, ,in which- A Figure l is a perspective view of a portable wash-boiler with our improvements applied. Figs. 2 and 3 represent modified forms of our improvement detached.

Similar letters of reference refer to like parts in all the gures. c

The nature of our invention consists in providin g wash-boilers with a loose false bottom, for the clothes or other `material or fabrics to rest upon, said bottom being arranged at some little distance above the true one, and at an angle with it more or less acute, as will be hereinafter more fully explained; and the better to enable others skilled in the art to construct and use our invention, we will now proceed to fully describe the same, and the advantages to be derived from its use.

A represents a common wash-boiler, provided with the usual pit or sunken bottom b,- and B exhibits our inclined false bottom, which is simply a sheet of tin or oth er suitable material, provided lwith tapering side flanges, as seen at C, Fig. 1, and C', Fig. 2, the lower edges of which rest on the bottom proper b of the boiler, and support the false bottom at the proper height andangle of inclination above.

The clothes, &c., to be washed are placed on top of the false bottom B, and in elevating it above the true boiler-bottom we do not design to raise it so high but that the clothes shall be well covered by the ordinary quantity of suds-water.

We usually iit the false bottom B closely to the sides of the wash-boiler; but for the purpose of permitting a free flow or circulation of the wash-water around the false bottom-that is to say, from below to above, and vice versa, we form spaces at the ends of the sheets by cutting away a portion of the same, as may be clearly seen at e1 e2.

Our reasonfor inclining the false bottom, or arranging one end of it higher than the other above the bottom proper b, will, perhaps,

lbe best explained in describing the mode of operation, which is as follows: The clothes, &c.,to be washed should be iirst well soaked, as usual, when, the proper quantity of prepared suds-water having been poured in the boiler, the false bottom B is immersed and adjusted in place, and the soaked clothes placed on it and set to boil. As soon as a brisk ebullition commences, the water below the false bottom rises up through the highest opening el at the top of the incline, and, permeating the immersed clothes or fabrics, is drawn rapidly through theirv bers to the space e2 at the lowest point of the incline, through `which space it is returned to supply the displacement at the opposite end. When the rapid and continuous current thus produced has passed through the body of the clothes for asuffcient time in one direction, the operator, with a stick, may reverse the incline of the false bottom by pushing down the i elevated end, which, of course, will elevate the end previously depressed. This reversal of the incline is easily effected, as the false bottom. will rock on the apex of the double taper of the side Iianges C; and when the bottom is adjusted in place, the action of the boiling current is such as to maintain it there.

When the angle of inclination of the false bottom is reversed, the direction of the boiling current is reversed also, and the hot suds, by the attrition of its rapid motion through the clothes in alternately opposite directions, so act upon every part and fiber of the fabric as to eii'ectually loosen and remove alldirt there v from. For many purposes, however, we do not deem it necessary to change the direction of the hot-suds current, and in such cases we construct the false-bottom side angeswith one continuous taper, as at C', Fig. 2; and, further, such bottom may be made to fulfill all the necessary conditions without any side anges joined to the plate, by simply bending asheet, of a proper taper and of extra width, so as to lit into the boiler, and give the required height and angle of inclination, as may be clearly seen in Fig. 3.

We did not deem it necessary to exhibit the boiler-cover in the drawings, but employ it While washing precisely as it is used ordiwith the side langes Cy or other equivalent narily. means for reversing its incline, when employed Having described our invention, what We in combination with a Wash-boiler, substanelaim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, tially in the manner and for the use set forth.

is as follows: f Y A. R. BALL.

1. The inclined false bottom B, in combinan-Y WM. M. PHELPS. tion with a Wash-boiler, substantially as and Witnesses: for the purpose specific C. T. COOK,

2. Providing said inclined. false bottom B Ofrcro L. JOHNSON. 

